Walter P. Kistler
Science Documentary Film Award
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Origins Executive Producer Thomas Levenson Wins First Annual Walter
P. Kistler Science Documentary Film Award
 Thomas Levenson was presented the first Walter P. Kistler
Science Documentary Film Award for his work on Origins,
a NOVA miniseries that aired on PBS in 2004. Levenson was Executive Producer of the four-part
series, and writer, producer, and director of the fourth program, Back
to the Beginning. He is Associate Professor of Science Writing in the
MIT Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies, Cambridge, MA. His previous
television documentaries include Building
Big: Domes (PBS) and Einstein
Revealed (NOVA).
 Origins addresses questions on how the universe became suitable to
harbor life and what the births of our Earth and Moon were like. Back
to the Beginning focuses on the Big Bang and the race among scientists
to capture lingering echoes of the event. The miniseries, produced
for WGBH/Boston, was hosted and narrated by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse
Tyson, who was also Executive Editor of the series.
Professor Levenson received the Walter P. Kistler Science Documentary
Film Award on June 21, 2020, in a celebration at Pacific
Science Center,
Seattle, WA. The award was presented personally by the originator
of the award program, Walter Kistler, benefactor of the Foundation
For the Future.
The award includes a cash prize of US$10,000 and a certificate. It
will be given annually to producers of science-based documentary films
that significantly increase the knowledge and understanding of the
public regarding subjects that will shape the future of our species.
Take an ordinary TV set, the old-fashioned kind, before
cable. All you need to do is change the channel until you come between
two stations. Most of that static comes from stray local radio waves
hitting these rabbit ear antennas, but amazingly, about one percent
of the snow and noise comes from microwaves produced in the Big Bang
itself.
Right now, we're all eavesdropping on the birth pangs
of the cosmos.
—Narration from Origins: Back to the Beginning
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